Tile drainage is a subsurface water control means often utilized in agricultural settings for improvement of moisture levels within the soil. Moisture content within the soil is often controlled in order to improve crop growth and for allowing access to the crops by way of heavy farm equipment. Too much moisture in the soil inhibits plant growth, and heavily saturated soil can quickly bog down heavy machinery utilized in crop cultivation, making access difficult.
Tile drainage has been performed with a buried drain pipe that is either segmented or perforated to accept therein subsurface water, wherein the buried drain is graded such that the water naturally flows in one direction and into a surface water collection area, such as a nearby body of water or a man-made reservoir. The drain tile is an elongated section of pipe that is buried within an excavated trench within the soil, in a similar fashion as a French drain around buildings, wherein the drain tile is then optionally covered with gravel and then a layer of soil thereover. As the water level rises, or as water percolates into the soil from rainfall, the water enters the pipe and flows from the farm fields and away from the crops, which desire a specific range of moisture levels in order to ensure proper root growth for healthy development.
Deploying drain tile, or “stringing” tile, involves placement of a drain tile piping roll onto a tractor or similar article of farm machinery for support thereof. Workmen may draw the tile from a spool supporting the roll as the tractor advances along a desired path for the drain tile trench. The spool rotates and the length of tile is withdrawn from the roll for placement into the trench before backfilling with soil thereover. The roll is therefore rotatably supported by the tractor to facilitate withdrawing therefrom, while periodic replacement of the roll is required after its drain tile length is fully deployed. In the past, when replacing the roll of drainage tile, the operator had to position a new roll onto a spool shaft and secure the roll thereto using an upper and lower spool ring that ensures the roll does not slide from the spool during operation. During the process of stringing tile in the field, operators were often required to exit the vehicle cab in which they are loading a fresh roll of drain tile onto the spool shaft or when unloading a depleted roll therefrom. This process was time-consuming and inefficient to the overall tile stringing process.
The replacement process further allowed for steps to be skipped that affect safety of the operators and workers in the field. During replacement of the roll, both rings of the spool were often required to be installed to contain the roll thereon. If operators choose not to install the removable top ring, the tile might dislodge from the spool and flip over as it is being unrolled, which could cause defects in the pipe. The tile might also bounce along the spool shaft while in the field, causing damage to the spool, the tile, and the trailer. It has been submitted in the past that an effective solution to these known problems was necessary. A solution was proposed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/866,263, Publication No. 20130277488 (published Oct. 24, 2013) (Paul Hovland, applicant), which patent application is incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference. This system utilizes a pivoting rocker arm 20 for placing the cap, which provides for only a single location of the upper ring 13 when it is oriented to be opposing the ring 12. Additionally, the system refers to controls in the vehicle and shows multiple sets of hydraulic hoses, which suggest a configuration where there is the capability for independent manual cylinder control for each hydraulically adjusted portion of the implement.
The present invention pertains to an automatic apparatus for and method of placing and replacing rolls of drainage tile onto a mobile spool of a hydraulic tile stringing implement, and for adjusting the vertical size of the spool during removal of the tile from the spool.
Consequently, there exists a need for improved methods and apparatuses for efficiently deploying rolls of drainage tiles.